April 4, 2009

Yes, how can i get up and say its time to call curtains on an outstanding career of one of the greatest batsmen India has ever seen ? Yes, how can I get up and have an opinion about a man who has racked up more than 10,000 runs and say that he needs to go even though he himself doesn’t feel the need to ?

But, there are some things quite inexplicable about Dravid . What is the point of scoring 30 odd runs in 3 hours while Harbhajan takes 30 odd minutes to score the same? Some people might argue that Dravid holds up one end and lets the others flourish and the batting revolves around him . But, then scoring a run every four balls means Dravid doesn’t even rotate the strike so even if the other batsman is in fine form like Sehwag or Sachin, he is not going to get too much strike to stay in rhythm .

Secondly, even if the team is down in the dumps, just by holding up one end and not scoring any runs is not going to take the team anywhere. Yeah, I batted for 3 hours when the world was falling around me but it added only ten runs to the team ? What’s the point then ? Didn’t really work ,did it? So the argument fails there also .

I am not asking Dravid to go bang bang but the least he can do is rotate the strike . Yesterday, I saw a classic replay in the ongoing Wellington test match . They showed two frames , one of Dravid and one of Sachin, facing identical kind of balls. Infact, Dravid had more room to play the shot. But, what i saw was a dead bat from Dravid and a four through covers by Sachin! Now, don’t tell me Sachin is a genius and he manufactured a shot. I think Dravid was capable of it too just that he didn’t want to . He doesn’t like to! which is what is inexplicable!!

In this Indian team, where everyone plays so positively – each one of them – Dravid seems like a misfit .

Yeah, Dravid has been a great, he has had his moments ,great ones at that – Calcutta and Adelaide standing out in my memory – but maybe its time to fade away in glory and let the younger guns take on the mantle?

April 4, 2009

The guy is a phenomenal batsman . He can turn the game on the head . He has been a scourge of the Aussies and racked up quite a few hundreds against quality opposition . Undoubtedly, he is England’s best batsman . But, is he worth all the tantrums ? Is he bigger than the game like he sometimes thinks he is ?

Marcus Trescothick was phenomenally brilliant but the guy could not travel . Ditto with Steve Harmison . And then England stopped playing them . Yes, why should they . No one is bigger than the game . And I think the same applies to KP . His ‘honesty’ (which I think is bull@#$%) should remain within him and he should be told to shut voicing his opinions and get on with the job . He has already done enough damage to England with the captaincy fiasco and the last thing England needs is an unruly member of the team. If he is at the end of the tether, then he can go home and watch England play on TV . And, if England is in such bad state that they are going to tolerate KP no matter what, then god help them .

Sehwag is phenomenal . The best in the world . No one smashes the ball harder than Yuvraj . And both of them were dropped to mend their ways .

The classiest case is Symonds. Aussies need him more than ever right now with so many greats gone but they have told him to mend his ways.

Time for KP to go the same way! I have a feeling Mallya has made a very bad investment. We shall find out in the next 50 days !

March 7, 2009

They often say that numbers dont tell the whole story of the man behind those numbers . They often say that a great cricketer is defined by the way he plays, the charm he had, the aura he created and the stunning faces he left behind after people had witnessed him play . Often, you need to go explaining why someone is great as there are always people who will tend to disagree about the subject’s greatness. That is the beauty of sports . Everyone has their own favorites, their own greats.

But to rise above it all , to be acknowledged as the greatest without any debate , to be so great that even numbers do justice to his art , that is the hallmark of this little 5’8″ gentleman who walked this planet and left behind a legacy, a history, a name, a memory which will never be erased by anyone who ever plays this game for the next hundred thousand years .

Sir Don stands tallest among them all without any debate !

Sir Garfield Sobers came, Sir Viv Richards destroyed and Sachin Tendulkar charmed but no one even came close to being the Don . No one can even think of getting close to the Don . You will always be second best in this game no matter how good you are .

Sir Don was not just a ruthless machine . Sir Don was not just the greatest batsman . Sir Don was the greatest Australian who ever lived . Sir Don was the reason England and Australia rejoiced during times of war and depression . Sir Don was the reason cricket became ugly as Douglas Jardine masterminded a war in a gentleman’s game .

And Sir Don is the reason why the game is still above the people who played it or still play it . His most famous duck proved he wasnt god . His most famous duck proved he was still mortal .

Sir Don was 99.94% perfect . And I think the world likes it that way .

February 1, 2009

This one is not about cricket but still about two gentlemen who have captured the imagination of the world and honestly, I just had to write about it.

I am happy Rafa won today.

I am sad Fedex lost today.

Today, I saw arguably the finest and the most complete tennis player ever to have held a racquet weep on television when the whole world was watching. The man didn’t cry last year after a 9 hour marathon in probably the greatest tennis match the world has ever witnessed. He had been vanquished then at his ‘home’. Today, I think something gave in within. As he said, “God, its killing me”. He was probably left wondering what it would take to beat Rafa again.

The Ice-man wept!

Even, Rafa couldn’t see the great man cry and gave him a hug and told him how great he was.

Victor and the vanquished! Hand in hand!

I don’t think it happens anywhere else. I don’t think there are many things in this world that evoke emotions the way sports does. It is spine chilling, heart rending and touches you somewhere really deep. You applaud the conquered and hail the conqueror.

That’s sports.

Infact, at times you wonder, does someone really have to win? But that’s why sports is sports. Because someone does win and someone does come second best and that’s the biggest truth of that world.

Last man standing! That is the rule of the jungle!

There are moments etched in my memory which will probably never go away. Klusener in the 1999 cricket world cup semi final! Baggio shooting over the bar in the 1994 world cup final! Massa last year in the grand finale of the F1 world championship! Verdasco, two days back! Roger today! Roger yesterday at the Wimbledon final!

No one lost in all these moments. Someone just came second best. And that’s the beauty of sports.

January 25, 2009

Some people are incorrigible. No amount of punishment is enough. Or maybe they dont see it as anything offensive anyways. Atleast thats what Symonds thinks of what he had to say about McCullum. He called him a lump of s*** and then in defense this is what he had to say (Quoting off cricinfo),

“I wish to sincerely apologise to Brendon McCullum for my comments during the radio interview with Roy and HG on Friday afternoon,” a statement from Symonds read. “My intentions for this interview were light-hearted and my comments no way reflect the respect that I have for McCullum both on and off the field.”

Give me a break !

Maybe Bhajji should have said the same thing after calling him a monkey! Like the aussies say, its all friendly banter on the field but we have the highest regard for others. What do they think of the other cricketers ? A bunch of fools ?

Unfortunately Symonds, you are the lump of s*** (dont worry i am saying it all in friendly humour – we can have a drink together later) . Your behavior meant Australia couldnt get you to India on a crucial trip, for whatever you are worth. Your indiscretion and attitude cost Australia big and I was hoping that after staying out of the team, you would have tried concentrating on the game rather than get into a brawl at a hotel (ofcourse you were provoked – wonder i should believe that or not) and then make an offensive remark on McCullum. Atleast, he hasnt let his team down yet!

Maybe, Australia really cant do without Symonds given they are on a losing spree. Otherwise, people like him should just never be allowed to go on with rubbish after rubbish (Rooobish in Boycott’s words) . Bhajji probably will never slap anyone ever again after getting a ban from IPL and maybe Symonds needs more than just a short term suspension.

January 25, 2009

This post is probably a bit late but I decided to run it anyways at a friend’s insistence. ICC has had enough flak come its way to the extent that they had to change their statement which did little to redeem them making me wonder about the brains of the men who supposedly run the sport .

The rankings came out initially with ICC claiming they were based on ‘longevity’ and ‘consistency’ of a player which made the list completely shocking and top cricketers were all over them making them change the statement the next day to ‘ it is only a measure of a player’s peak and nothing more’. Which unfortunately is not much better – how can you compare Sachin’s peak to Lara’s peak to Kevin Pieterson’s peak!

Lets run through the rankings anyways . Batting first.

Ponting makes it to no.3 which is debatable and I could try and agree there as he has arugably been the most consistent batsman in the last 10 years clocking centuries after centuries. But then, Sangakarra makes it to 6 with Aravinda at 88 ? Any buyers for that? Hussey – who has lost his Bradmanesque skills is above Gavaskar, Headley – the black bradman, just because he averaged 80 for 2 years ? And then to top it all – KP makes it above Sachin which makes the whole list laughable . Youhana, Kallis make it above Greenidge, Worrel, Stan McCabe – the man who Bradman wished he could bat like. Even when you go comparing peaks – KP will never make it above Sachin, Hayden will never make it above Gavaskar and McCabe might even walk taller than Bradman!

Time to look at the bowlers. It still seems more sane, although I really wonder how Hoggard could have ever made it to the top 500, leave alone the top 100 – and that too above Mcdermott, Charlie Griffith and Frank Tyson! Its a saving grace that Monty doesnt figure there otherwise I would have just rolled off my chair right now. Dale Steyn – yes, the finest fast bowler right now – still has a long way to go before he merits mention before Roberts, Garner, Lillee. Stuart Clark bowling at 120kph, for some reason makes it above Holding – the man they called whispering death, Miller – the finest Aussie all-rounder who bowled lightening fast. And yes, Flintoff seems to be better than Jeff Thomson!

Everytime, I see that list, I wonder who made it – As Boycott would have said it – “my mum could have done a better job than the supreme body of world cricket” !!

January 17, 2009

Hayden finally buckled in and bid farewell to cricket before he was shown the door. It was slightly sad to see him struggle in India and the desperation was evident when he tried blasting ZaK out of the attack but the wretched form stretched too far against lowly Kiwis and the challenging Proteas leading him to call it a day. Yes, he was a great batsman. Yes, he made bowlers tremble with his rock like figure and brutal assaults. Yes, I had him in every super selector team I selected because he and Ponting were two batsmen I always backed to get a hundred everytime. Yes, Aussies call him their greatest opener ever but Ponting stretching it to the greatest opener ever in the history of the game??? Give it a break. Why do Aussies-and earlier Pakistanis-love proclaiming their players as the greatest players in the world all the time? I doubt he is even the greatest opener of this era, leave alone, of all eras.

I think two openers of this era who have been far more instrumental in their team’s fortunes are Sehwag and Graeme Smith.

Sehwag averages 51, the same as Hayden but his statistics are even better given the fact that he averages 51 against Australia and SA, the two top bowling line ups in the world. Let’s face it; Aussies had the most fearsome bowling line up in the last 10 years with Mcgrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne in their ranks which made them virtually invincible. Scoring so many runs at a strike rate of close to 80 in test matches definitely must mean something. And qualitatively speaking, Sehwag has probably played greater innings than Hayden. Hayden destroyed India in 2001 with 549 runs in 3 matches and his twin hundreds at the Gabba in the Ashes in 2003 were special but how many times did he turn matches? Surely lesser than Sehwag! Sehwag’s 201 last year against Murali and Mendis won him the batting performance of the year and his blistering 80 set up a historic win against England and then there was the magical 300 in Multan, the fastest 300 against SA and a great 150 in a back-to-the-wall innings in Adelaide last year. I could go on and on but this should suffice.

About Smith-who also averages 50 plus-it is enough to talk about his fantastic leadership, his 100 against the Poms at Edgbaston, his hundred at Perth in December to put him beyond Hayden.

The funny bit is that even if for a moment you acknowledge that Hayden is probably the greatest opener of our era, one only needs to go back to Gavaskar to realize how Hayden might never measure up to the little master. Gavaskar was a legend who scored most of his runs against the mighty West Indies and the like of Lillie, Thomson and Hadlee and still scored more hundreds than Hayden and averaged as much.

There you go punter, it is ok to acknowledge the achievements of a great opener – Yes, Hayden was one – but lets stop at that. I haven’t even mentioned Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Leonard Hutton. Ever heard of them?

January 11, 2009

The world order is changing or maybe it has already changed. Australia has never looked so vulnerable since a long long time. I cant even remember. The last time i saw them being annihilated like this was probably in 1998 when Sachin took them apart as a dust storm tore through Sharjah. But for ten years they ruled the world! They were untouchable and the world was perfect.

A team which was first moulded by Allan Border, led amicably by Mark Taylor passed on to the gritty Steve Waugh and then to ‘Punter’ – a man so unlike his predecessors. Yet, with giants of the cricketing world on his side, Ponting won everything that came in the way and was hailed a great captain. Warne, Mcgrath, Gilchrist led by probably one of the finest batsmen of the modern era in Ponting himself destroyed and demoralised everyone else. There was a time when only Australia A could probably match Australia.

Oh, how the times have changed; Ponting has been seen scratching his head and Australia have become desperate to figure out how to win. So, was he a good captain or just a great batsman who won on the sheer weight of champions on his side backed by his mighty batting?

Its easy to be a captain when you are winning but a captain is one who transforms hopeless situations into winning ones. Great captains are those who pull out wins with their sheer imagination, grit and leadership. Graeme Smith just proved that in the recently concluded series. When he walked out in Sydney with two broken arms, even Ponting saluted him. When you got a captain like that, then everyone just has to stand up and get themselves counted. Captains are those who take teams like Rajasthan Royals to the pinnacle of success. Captains are those who infuse energy like Dhoni does to the younger breed. They read the game ahead of the turn and make more right moves than wrong.

Mark Taylor was a great captain. He was counted more as a captain than a batsman. Steve Waugh was a leader of men. He taught his team how to stand up and fight. He was a warrior. Stephen Fleming led a feeble New Zealand team to fight out of their skins. Ranatunga transformed minnows into world beaters. Sourav Ganguly taught India the meaning of killer instint.

When you think of men like these, I cant help feeling that Ponting will just be one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era but nothing more. He will go down in history as a captain with one of those enviable records but when you think of names like Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh, Imran Khan, I just cant allow myself to think of him in the same breath.